Preview — Menn som hater kvinner
by Stieg Larsson

A murder mystery, family saga, love story, and a tale of financial intrigue wrapped into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trA murder mystery, family saga, love story, and a tale of financial intrigue wrapped into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption....more

Swedish people are nuts! I realize that’s a bit of a broad generalization and it sounds a bit rude, but I don’t care. Because more often than not, I’m nuts too.

I was born and raised in Minnesota, and if you know our state history, you’re already aware that we were predominantly settled and populated by Swedish (and Norwegian) immigrants. So not only are many Minnesota residents of Scandinavian descent, myself included, a lot of our quirky mannerisms and even our accents are commonly attributed tSwedish people are nuts! I realize that’s a bit of a broad generalization and it sounds a bit rude, but I don’t care. Because more often than not, I’m nuts too.

I was born and raised in Minnesota, and if you know our state history, you’re already aware that we were predominantly settled and populated by Swedish (and Norwegian) immigrants. So not only are many Minnesota residents of Scandinavian descent, myself included, a lot of our quirky mannerisms and even our accents are commonly attributed to this influence. I attended a Swedish Lutheran college (which attracted a lot of Swedish exchange students). And one of my oldest and dearest friends is an American by birth but was raised in Sweden and didn’t return to live full-time in the U.S. until she was 18. She’s always found Minnesotans to be a very interesting form of science experiment—what happens when you mix Swedish and American culture anyway?

Taking what I know firsthand of Minnesota culture into consideration, I can only assume that Sweden, aka the motherland, is also a twisted place of dark, dry humor. Some mainstream examples that support this claim would include: Fargo, Drop Dead Gorgeous, A Prairie Home Companion and yes, even Mr. Purple Rain himself, who even though he’s genetically a bit more exotic than a plain old Swede, definitely displays some of the more oddball (but typical) Minnesota traits in his own special way.

The point being, the characters in this book felt oddly familiar to me, quirks and all. I’m actually a bit surprised I loved the book as much as I did because I normally criticize authors for trying to jam too much into one story and this book had a lot going on:

And that’s just scraping the surface. Because once Larsson got into it and started digging deeper into the plot and revealing more details, my head started spinning and I had smoke coming out of my ears. I wasn’t expecting to be sucked in so quickly by the plot and am still reeling over the fact that this brick-like book (my copy has nearly 600 pages) went as quickly as it did.

I just reserved the sequel from the library and am also excited at the prospects of a third. I’m also sad that Mr. Larsson passed away. What a talented author—not many could tie so much crazy shit into one story and still have it make sense AND be entertaining.

Although I think whoever decided to change the title when they released this book in English is nuts too. The original Swedish title, Men Who Hate Women, is much more fitting. ...more

I will answer these in a moment, but first I must declare that I am an unrepentant fan of this book. This is one of the rare times when I long for goodreads to have half grades, because I would love to give this 4.5. I can't give it a full 5, though, because I sense Mr. Larsson's series is going to grow in his last two books.

And now...back to the top eight complaints:

1. Perhaps, but how can a book whose original Swedish title is "Men Who Hate Women" avoid misogyny? It can't. But at least the misogyny present is a comment on misogyny. Larsson isn't being misogynist. He's attacking misogyny.

Moreover, our hero, Mikael Blomkvist, is not one of the men who hate women. He is a pretty good guy, actually; in fact, he's one of the rare guys I would actually categorize as a "good guy" in most modern literature. Sure...he's a bad Dad. Sure...he has a failed marriage and many sexual relationships. Sure...he makes some decisions that challenge his ethics. But he remains a "good guy." He tries to do well in an ugly world. He never succumbs to cynicism. And he genuinely cares about all the people in his life. Male and female.

And it's not like Berger and Salander are weak women -- far from it. There may be misogyny in Men Who Hate Women, but it is wholly the characters' misogyny -- those who have it -- and not the author's.

2. With apologies to my friend who's first name starts with T: Cliché, smiché! Yes there's some cliché -- maybe plenty of cliché -- but who cares?! Seriously? We're not talking about Proust here. We're talking about a mystery novel, a serial killer who-dunnit. Complaining about cliché in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is like complaining about "pinko sympathies" in The Communist Manifesto.

There's communism in Marx? Really? You think!?

3 & 7. Yep. There's a couple of distinct plots here, but there's a level of verisimilitude to that. Have even our banal lives ever had anything important happen without something else important occurring at the same time? Not mine, and to have multiple incidents happening simultaneously makes sense to me. The search for Harriet Vanger wasn't hampered at all by the Wennerström drama, and vice versa. And to be honest, I loved having a pair of mysteries solved in the same novel.

4. Too disturbing compared to what? It's nowhere near as disturbing as American Psycho, and it's about average as far as the serial killer genre goes. Plus, I think there is a power in the graphic moments of this novel, particularly Lisbeth's vengeance on her guardian. I am not on her side when it comes to this vengeance, but I understand it, and the drive to take vengeance in such a way -- such a human way -- fascinates me. Who'd have thought, besides maybe my friend Manny, that the Swedes have it in them?

5. Perhaps this is true, but at this point I have only read one of the trilogy, and the only person who suggested that Lisbeth was autistic was Mikael, and while he thought she was suffering from Asberger's his guess was only in passing. I can cut the book some slack here. (suspend my disbelief, suspend my disbelief).

6. I was stoked that, for once, the Nazis were a red herring rather than the ultimate, degenerated evil. We all expect the Nazis to be the worst of the worst, so it is refreshing to see them as a deflection instead.

8. Can anyone really be too hard on Leviticus? Ummmmm...nope.

Now, I admit that I might love this novel simply because it is set in Sweden. After all, I do love ABBA, Fredrik Ljungberg, IKEA (my apologies), glögg, Stellan Skarsgård, Max von Sydow, Ingmar Bergman, and Mats Sundin. I looked into emigrating to Sweden but had no excuse, being a resident of Canada with no skills the Swedes were looking for, and I am a fan of Norse Mythology, but I do love Sweden, and I was jazzed by the setting of Larsson's book. All that aside, however, I think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a compelling, entertaining and unabashedly thrilling read.

If you can overlook the eight complaints, or consider them in a different light, you'll like this book too. I promise. ...more

“If you go at night, take a friend.” “Check under the car and in your backseat before you get in.” “I’m just saying it’s a good idea to know where the exits are.” “I got you this whistle for your keychain, you know, just so you have it.” “You were an hour later than I thought you’d be! We called the police!” “Oh, that’s pepper spray; I keep it with me just in case.” “I just make sure I get my keys out and check for other weapons if I’m getting off work latWomen are raised to routinely fear rape.

“If you go at night, take a friend.” “Check under the car and in your backseat before you get in.” “I’m just saying it’s a good idea to know where the exits are.” “I got you this whistle for your keychain, you know, just so you have it.” “You were an hour later than I thought you’d be! We called the police!” “Oh, that’s pepper spray; I keep it with me just in case.” “I just make sure I get my keys out and check for other weapons if I’m getting off work late.” “Is this weird? I live alone and I’m going running, so if I don’t call you by 11:15, call the police, okay?”

A woman who fights back – no, a woman who argues at all – does so knowing it will probably make her a social pariah.

“She’s just one of those women who makes life hell . . . like a Hillary Clinton type.” “You’re different; you’re not a ball buster like some girls.” “You know that rape accusations can destroy a man’s life, right? And when she said it, did you see how she looked? I mean . . .” “All girls do is complain and nag. Not you, of course – most girls.” “But it is really women who are the privileged ones to be covered and cared for by the man; all of the responsibility for decisions are on him.” “He didn’t mean it the way it sounded, so you'll just regret it if you tell him he's wrong.” “She never understood me, and now she’s making all of these claims and trying to take practically half of my paycheck. I think she was just in it for the money in the first place.” “All I said was she has a nice rack; what a bitch.” “That’s just life; make the best of it.”

And there is good reason we are raised to fear rape, and raised not to fight back: survival. Women know that if we walk alone in the dark, statistically there is a good chance we will get raped. If we go to the wrong party, we’ll be raped. If we misread that boy next door and his swellness is a con, rape. And when a person is in a position of being systematically controlled, it often does cause more physical or emotional damage to fight back. It’s not right, but it is realistic.

It seems to me like it is the equivalent of every man being raised that if he leaves the house at the wrong time, he might encounter a woman who will strip him naked, hold him down, and knee him in the balls while she masturbates. And then in this alternate universe, these boys find out, as they grow up, that most of the men they know have had that happen to them. And I’m not trying to minimize sexual assault experiences that involve little or no physical injury, nor am I trying to minimize sexual assaults against men: no one has the right to touch another person’s body without permission. I’m talking about the way women are raised to think of daily life. Women are not raised to be afraid we’re going to get a super hot BJ that we didn’t realize we wanted, which is sometimes how I feel people talk about rape accusations. We are raised to encounter our daily lives knowing that, even if violence wasn't in our past, violence probably is in our future. And every time someone says, “Don’t go alone,” it is a little reminder that a lot of men hate us.

I have to say, though, that while I think it is realistic to say that women are raised to fear rape and to incorporate that fear of rape into our daily routine, and that sometimes fighting back makes things more dangerous, I do not believe it is effective to live in fear or to encourage women to live in fear or not defend ourselves. I think that perpetuates an idea that women are powerless, which then encourages women to freeze up when encountered with violence or even conflict. I think trusting our instincts and learning martial arts is probably more productive.

And teaching men not to rape.

That seems like the approach this book takes, though it more directly simply reflects, with appropriate outrage, on the levels of male contempt for women. And I think in that way, in the way it is directed to men, it is about how gross contempt for women is, whether it takes the form of self-absorption or sadism.

This book is smart. It is symmetrical in its execution in many ways: in starting and ending with Blomkvist’s corporate corruption story, and in the way it shows men and women accused of race whoring, men and women subjected to violence. The juxtaposition of (view spoiler)[Salander’s rape with Blomkvist’s consensual sexual encounter with Cicilia (hide spoiler)] is really well played. It is viscerally grotesque in the contrast, and it highlights the theme of consent. It was physically difficult for me to read, especially in the contrast, and I thought that made it very effective.

Salander’s character, too, is smart. She is both the outcast that women are when we fight back, and she is something of the misunderstood-bad-boy hero turned girl. I liked that. When she (view spoiler)[saves Blomkvist, it is all really vivid and heroic, but still corporeal and disgusting. I liked that Blomkvist couldn’t take charge because he was in too much shock, and that she truly saved his life (hide spoiler)]. It bothers me when a storyteller starts to let a girl save a guy, but really she only tosses him the gun to save himself. Salander gets some real action and some real credit, and it is satisfying.

Ultimately, it is pretty clear, but not laughing in your face, just resigned, Larsson knows (view spoiler)[Blomkvist is a self-serving ass, too. It was so smart at the end when Blomkvist runs into his nemesis with a girl Salander’s age on his arm, and Blomkvist so despises him for it. I like how in the end our hero really isn’t our hero. He really has only used Salander, and how far is that from hating women? It is certainly not respectful (hide spoiler)]. The hatred we condemn in this book, though, manifests as violence, and I can get behind featuring that and then fading out to Cicilia’s father condemning her as a whore and Blomkvist’s blissful self-absorption. It is a meaningful gradation. But, it is important that (view spoiler)[Blomkvist isn’t the ideal model of men being friends with women because he would be too specific – because there probably isn’t an ideal model. Larsson doesn’t justify Blomkvist’s assholery, but he is not so in love with his hero that he can’t acknowledge it (hide spoiler)]. And, aren’t we all assholes to each other a lot of the time? But not all of us get off on kneeing each other in the balls.

This struck me as a very masculine translation of male hatred of women and the way women navigate a world that tells us every time we turn a corner that it hates us. It seems like men either have considered what life would be like if they had been trained to fear leaving the house after dark, or they haven’t. And in my experience, it is difficult for men to understand a woman’s words if she tries to describe it, so I think it is important to have a man tell a story this way. I do see how the graphic descriptions of sadistic violence against women might allow a sadistic audience to read only for that, but the fact that Larsson balances this with graphic violence against men neutralizes the gender-hatred aspect of that to me. And if you are reading these books for the violence, see a psychiatrist, but I don’t think it is productive to censor descriptions of violence just because someone fucked up might get off on them. And if you think these descriptions are fantastical exaggerations, go spend some time at your local women’s shelter. Unfortunately, I think you will find you are wrong. And I don't think it does anybody any good to be afraid to tell these stories.

I hated the writing in this book a lot. Like, I hated it a lot. It both hit a lot of pet peeves of mine and it was just objectively bad in a lot of places. I don’t have a problem with books being badly written if the writing doesn’t get in the way of a good story, but here the writing was waiving its hands in my face the whole time trying to get me to lose the story. The sandwiches! OH TEH SANDWICHES! I wonder how much tourism for Sweden Larsson drummed up by the sandwich descriptions. I hope none because gag. I can see how he created the effect of an investigatory report through the writing, so, I think it is intentionally the way it is, but it was a choice I did not enjoy at all. So, overall this was a very unpleasant book to read, but it was smart, and its smartness outweighed its unpleasantness in my evaluation.

It is always kind of a funny experience to read your own words as someone else would write them. In every Willa Cather novel I have read, there has been a moment where I’ve read something and thought, “I just said that last week!!!” It was funny in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: I wanted to high five Salander all the time because I would think her dialogue right before I read it. I imagine everyone in the world has told me to read this book because of the times I say, “Oh, another man who hates women.” Or that it is bullshit to say someone had a violent childhood, so of course he had to be violent against women as an adult. So, it was funny to read somebody else say those words. At the same time, Salander felt like a man recording the facts of what he saw a woman do and say once, not like a living, breathing human character. That doesn’t take away from the smartness of the book, but it is another reason my actual enjoyment factor was low.

Also, I had to go buy pickles yesterday because reading about so many of them gave me a craving. I hope Larsson’s estate got some sponsorship money from the sandwich and pickle lobbies. ["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>...more

Ace Varkeyenjoyed your review -- just wondering if you also thought bjurman overpowering lisbeth was a stretch -- after all, she is on edge, he is older, she isenjoyed your review -- just wondering if you also thought bjurman overpowering lisbeth was a stretch -- after all, she is on edge, he is older, she is prepared, and in good physical shape -- i was disturbed that harriet never told the police on her father and brother -- so she's living her life, not concerned that horrors are still taking place?...more
Jan 21, 2015 03:46PM

After having leaped onto the bandwagon with the rest of everyone, I feel a certain amount of pretentious indie pride saying that I wasn't as awed by this book as everyone else apparently was. Which is not to say that the book wasn't enjoyable and exciting; it just didn't knock my socks off whilst simultaneously blowing my mind and rocking my world. (that sounds like either some great song lyrics or a very complicated sexual maneuver. Let's go with the first option.)

So, the good stuff: the main sAfter having leaped onto the bandwagon with the rest of everyone, I feel a certain amount of pretentious indie pride saying that I wasn't as awed by this book as everyone else apparently was. Which is not to say that the book wasn't enjoyable and exciting; it just didn't knock my socks off whilst simultaneously blowing my mind and rocking my world. (that sounds like either some great song lyrics or a very complicated sexual maneuver. Let's go with the first option.)

So, the good stuff: the main story - a disgraced journalist is hired by a rich old man to write a book about said man's crazy rich family, while secretly working to discover truth behind the disappearance and supposed murder of the man's granddaughter. Also in play is Lisbeth Salander, a freelance investigator who also happens to be one of the best hackers in Sweden. She also happens to be made of awesome, but I'll get to that later. The journalist is investigating a supposed murder (a body was never found, so no one even knows what happened to the girl), so violence is expected. I just wasn't quite prepared for just how intensely graphic the violence is. There's a lot of stuff dealing with assault, rape, and murder of various women. There is also a lot of sex in the book, and the stuff that gets described in the most detail is definitely not consensual and will probably make you very uncomfortable. You've been warned. The investigation itself is pretty fascinating, implausible as it is that some random guy investigating a disappearance that took place 40 years ago was able to find out completely new leads that weren't found by the police or the girl's grandfather (who's been obsessing about the case since forever), but I digress. The family itself is equal parts interesting, creepy, and frustrating. It's not until the journalist (Blomkvist) teams up with Lisbeth that things get really interesting, and they made such a fun team I wanted them to get their own detective show. The book deals mainly with crimes against women and those who commit them. Larsson obviously feels very passionately about this subject, as well as what should be done with the men who assault women. Without giving anything away, rest assured that every bad guy rapist/murderer/whatever gets a large helping of tasty justice.

And now for the bad stuff: -There's a lot of nattering on about business and computers and journalism and more business stuff that either bored me or went over my head completely. -Larsson cannot seem to decide whether he wants to refer to people by their last name or their first name, so he switches back and forth and it is confusing. -A family tree is provided at the beginning of the book, since the family the journalist is investigating (the Vangers) is pretty big, but I never had much trouble keeping everyone straight. A map of the island the family compound is located on would have been much more helpful, since I never really figured out the geography of the place. -Pointless details. I don't need to know what the characters ate for every single meal, I don't need to know exactly what model of computer/motorcycle/car a character uses, and I definitely don't need to know what each character is wearing at every moment of the day. Larsson is especially guilty of this when Lisbeth is concerned - I guess he decided we wouldn't understand what a unique counterculture tough chick she is unless we know that she's always wearing leather jackets, boots, torn jeans, and black t-shirts with angry slogans. (yes, Larsson actually tells us what each of Lisbeth's t-shirts says.) Listen, Stieg: Lisbeth is awesome. She is wonderfully defined simply through her own actions and thoughts - we don't even need the other characters constantly reminding us how antisocial and tough and uncommunicative and badass she is. Believe me, we can see that. Show don't tell etc.

To sum up, I'm going to give the last word to the book itself, and quote a sentence that's actually a character talking about a book featured towards the end of the story - but it could easily describe Larsson's book:"It was uneven stylistically, and in places the writing was actually rather poor - there had been no time for any fine polishing - but the book was animated by a fury that no reader could help but notice."

That, in a nutshell, was how I felt about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

UPDATE: I just watched the film version of this book (the original Swedish one, thank you verra much), and am adding this to my "the movie is better" shelf. Not that the book isn't good; it's just that the movie streamlines the story and gets rid of everything I complained about earlier in this review. In the movie, all the minor characters and business-drama babble has been eliminated, Erika and Mikael's weird three-way relationship is thankfully unmentioned, Mikael never boffs Cecilia Vanger, and Noomi Rapace is so fucking cool as Lisbeth I can't even handle it. I'm also pretty sure they took some stuff from The Girl Who Played With Fire and put it in the movie, because there's some stuff about Lisbeth's past that I don't remember from the book.

UPDATE UPDATE: Having now seen the American remake, and re-watched the Swedish version, I have come to a following decision. While the American version is, in a technical sense, a better movie (Fincher is a much better director - for just one example, the scene where Henrik Vanger explains the circumstances of Harriet's disappearance is a masterful example of show-don't-tell), I dislike the changes they made to the ending, and I simply cannot accept Rooney Mara as Lisbeth. Although I'm proud of Fincher & Co. for making her look and act as weird as the character should, something about her portrayal still wasn't right. If you're interested, this article explains pretty much every complaint I have about American Lisbeth....more

Steve MbonuI gave it three stars too, Madeline. You can check out my review
Jul 21, 2014 05:43AM

Ace Varkeylike you, i really liked the swedish version -- this despite daniel craig being in the american movie-- i confess that when i read the book, i skippedlike you, i really liked the swedish version -- this despite daniel craig being in the american movie-- i confess that when i read the book, i skipped the millennium parts (did the same when i was reading cold mountain, pretty much ignoring inman's trek home...)--no one else i have spoken with was bored by those parts....which is why i really enjoyed your review...more
Jan 21, 2015 03:52PM

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.Hey, kids, if you like books in which the only major descriptive moments happen during sexual torture scenes, where major characters lack motive, and where the red herrings...stink ... this book's for you!

I may feel less strongly after a few days, but I am having a hard time believing this book has hit the best-seller lists in multiple countries.

**Rant containing Mild Spoilers**

Here are my complaints:

1. The entire book sets you up to think that the alleged killing/s were perpetrated by one or mHey, kids, if you like books in which the only major descriptive moments happen during sexual torture scenes, where major characters lack motive, and where the red herrings...stink ... this book's for you!

I may feel less strongly after a few days, but I am having a hard time believing this book has hit the best-seller lists in multiple countries.

**Rant containing Mild Spoilers**

Here are my complaints:

1. The entire book sets you up to think that the alleged killing/s were perpetrated by one or more people for complicated reasons. Spoiler: They're not. A murderer, at the climax, reveals, "I like killing [people]." That's the motive. That's it.

2. The title character has her macabre past detailed at length. The salient facts to the case - how did she come into possession of her detective-ing skills? - is left out entirely. Her emotional life is ignored until it's needed for a little plot development and then ignored again for a gazillion pages. She makes Kinsey Milhoney look like a guru of emotional awareness and self-knowledge.

3. When a MAJOR DEVELOPMENT happens in the case, like, THE MAJOR DEVELOPMENT, we the readers hear about its resolution third hand. A reunion occurs and we are not privvy to it, even though it's REALLY IMPORTANT. That is LAME.

4. Stop with the Mac commericials aleady. Is it possible that the well-financed campaign for this book had to do with the fact that the dead author couldn't object to selling Apple and Kawasaki shout-outs?

5.The two plot lines are almost entirely unrelated. They don't even intersect, really; one segues into a second, and then, when the second is wrapped up entirely, the first plot returns to end with a whimper.

6. There is a Lot of torture-porn in this book. Did I mention that? Detailed description of sexual abuse, incest, and general nastiness that does nothing to advance the plot. Really. It just takes up space making you think there are reasons for the murders, but ...no, see #1. We listened to this on cd and I kept trying to forward and ending up on the absolute worst moments. Blech.

7. Several passages written as an email conversation. It's like the author realized at a certain point that he was so bad at dialogue that he'd better just give it a rest for a while and instead use stilted telegraph talking.

8. This book was not fun or smart. I kept thinking it was about to be, but I was wrong.

Matt BrennerInteresting points Sarita. While I'm not gonna lie, I loved the story, I completely agree with the Mac product placement. Everyone has an iBook! I thiInteresting points Sarita. While I'm not gonna lie, I loved the story, I completely agree with the Mac product placement. Everyone has an iBook! I think though to get more of Salandar's past you have to read the subsequent books in the series....more
Mar 27, 2014 08:17PM

I really don't understand the critical orgasms over this book. Amazon pushed it on me for weeks, and the minute I stepped into Borders an employee ran over and recommended it. Thinking, this really better be the best book I've ever read, I took it up to the checkstand, where the register guy asked: "Did one of our employees recommend this?" Um, yeah. And Amazon, too. So of course I asked him why.

"Oh," he replied, "we've been told to recommend it this week." That should have tipped me off rightI really don't understand the critical orgasms over this book. Amazon pushed it on me for weeks, and the minute I stepped into Borders an employee ran over and recommended it. Thinking, this really better be the best book I've ever read, I took it up to the checkstand, where the register guy asked: "Did one of our employees recommend this?" Um, yeah. And Amazon, too. So of course I asked him why.

"Oh," he replied, "we've been told to recommend it this week." That should have tipped me off right there: recommendations handed down by management. Pfft. I hesitate to suggest a conspiracy, but - did someone end up with too many of these in a warehouse in Duluth? Did Oprah make a bet with someone that she could pull strings and make the most boring book in the world a best seller?

But I am suckered in by numerous good reviews and a fairly interesting book jacket description, so I buy it and take it with me on a trip camping with my family. Of course it totally sucks. I'm kicking myself because I feel like I really should have known. But the reviews - ALL the reviews - are absolutely positive from generally reliable sources, so I just DO. NOT. UNDERSTAND.

Here's why I don't like it: I am about a third of the way into it, and literally hundreds of characters have been introduced. NOT ONE of them has done anything interesting, so I am finding it nearly impossible to keep them straight. I am the type that will be more or less satisfied reading the back of a cereal box, but this is BAD. I mean bad. The mystery is dull. The who done it is more like a who cares. The two primary characters are so far not very likable at all - in fact, the review descriptions are more interesting than the book descriptions of them. I'm betting part of the problem is the translation, presumably - but god, there is just some boring writing in here, too. "He went to the store. He bought milk. He was cold. He went home." - BOR-RING! I am not really exaggerating, either.

Actual content:"He put on a pot of coffee and made himself two sandwiches. He had not eaten a proper meal all day, but he was strangely uninterested in food. he offered the cat a piece of sausage and some liverwurst. After drinking the coffee, he took the cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and opened the pack."

Again, I'm willing to give the author the benefit of the doubt with the translating, but I wouldn't have gotten out of high school writing with that kind of boring and utterly pointless description. It sets the tone of "lonely dude being lonely" but really: two sandwiches? why two? sausage and liverwurst - fascinating.

That's really just a page I opened to randomly - there is much worse. I am truly bitterly resentful of every minute I am stuck on the side of this mountain without a good book to read. I'm ready to browse the mini mart down the way and read the real estate magazines instead. Why have all the reviewers and Amazon steered me SO WRONG???

I am not trying to insult anyone's taste - so please don't get mad about my opinion. But if you love this book, please - tell me WHY. What am I missing?

VictoriaI have TRIED to get into this book three times, I just can't do it. Normally, I'm into a book by the first couple of pages, but I just don't think I wI have TRIED to get into this book three times, I just can't do it. Normally, I'm into a book by the first couple of pages, but I just don't think I want to read this. I've seen and heard so many great reviews and I wonder why this book isn't interesting me, but I guess it's just not for me. Perhaps I will try and read it again in the future...!...more
Mar 09, 2015 11:43AM

VictoriaI have TRIED to get into this book three times, I just can't do it. Normally, I'm into a book by the first couple of pages, but I just don't think I wI have TRIED to get into this book three times, I just can't do it. Normally, I'm into a book by the first couple of pages, but I just don't think I want to read this. I've seen and heard so many great reviews and I wonder why this book isn't interesting me, but I guess it's just not for me. Perhaps I will try and read it again in the future...!...more
Mar 09, 2015 11:43AM

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired to solve the decades-old murder of Harriet Vanger, member of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden. Aided by a tattooed, antisocial hacker named Lisabeth Salander, Blomkvist unearths horrible skeletons lurking in the Vanger family closet...

For a few years now, I've been avoiding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Since so many people told me I just had to read it, many of them non-readers, I assumed it was a lot of over-hyped, dumbed-down crap. WelDisgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired to solve the decades-old murder of Harriet Vanger, member of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden. Aided by a tattooed, antisocial hacker named Lisabeth Salander, Blomkvist unearths horrible skeletons lurking in the Vanger family closet...

For a few years now, I've been avoiding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Since so many people told me I just had to read it, many of them non-readers, I assumed it was a lot of over-hyped, dumbed-down crap. Well, I may have been wrong. All hype aside, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a damn good book and I feel it goes beyond just being a mystery.

Larsson creates some memorable characters. We've got Mikael Blomkvist, the tarnished journalist, Lisabeth Salander, bad ass hacker, for the leads, both multidimensional characters. Neither are by any means perfect but I liked them just the same. The Vanger family and the staff of the Millennium aren't as well drawn as the leads but Ericka Berger and some of the Vangers are good characters in their own right.

I'll be honest. It took a little while for me to get moving but I was enthralled pretty early on. You wouldn't have thought I'd be that interesting in what could have been a tedious subject to read about, namely researching family archives for hints. Somehow Larsson managed to grab me, though.

There isn't a lot of violence but what there is is pretty brutal. The hacking was pretty well done and not completely unbelievable. I guess what really sold the book for me was that I really believed in the characters. Both of them are pretty flawed but completely believable.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a some complaints. Aside from the pace, I felt like Larsson threw in some needless details. I didn't need to know the brands of a lot of products or what the characters were eating. I also thought that Mikael Blomkvist being a sort of James Bond in regard to the ladies was a tad unbelievable. Honestly, those are my only two complaints I can think of at the moment.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo deserves a lot of the hype it gets. Now go out and read it if you haven't already!

Edit: I'm marking this down because I'm reading In the Woods and enjoying it more than I enjoyed this. I was kind of a whore with my 5s in past years....more

Dan SchwentDan 2.0 wrote: "I liked book 2 quite a bit more than the others. Probably because it's focused more on Lisbeth. Some parts of Book 3 are a little tediDan 2.0 wrote: "I liked book 2 quite a bit more than the others. Probably because it's focused more on Lisbeth. Some parts of Book 3 are a little tedious to get through(much of the conspiracy stuff)."

I liked the second one more as well since it was mostly Lisbeth kicking ass. I read the first 30% or so of the third book before throwing it back on the shelf for when I was in the mood for something tedious....more
Jan 05, 2015 08:53AM

SkipI liked all three, but agree that Book #3 was not as good as the earlier ones. (Nowhere near as disappointing as Mockingjay though.) Wish someone in SI liked all three, but agree that Book #3 was not as good as the earlier ones. (Nowhere near as disappointing as Mockingjay though.) Wish someone in Sweden would finish Book #4....more
Jan 05, 2015 08:54AM

The original Swedish title of this book is "Men Who Hate Women." If you ask me, it suits this story much better than catchier but less relevant "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," because it is in fact about men doing all kinds of horrid things to women. So here is the first warning to you, if you don't handle violence against women and children well, skip this novel.

It's hard to give a short synopsis of the book. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" starts off as an investigation of a 40-year oldThe original Swedish title of this book is "Men Who Hate Women." If you ask me, it suits this story much better than catchier but less relevant "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," because it is in fact about men doing all kinds of horrid things to women. So here is the first warning to you, if you don't handle violence against women and children well, skip this novel.

It's hard to give a short synopsis of the book. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" starts off as an investigation of a 40-year old disappearance of a teenage heiress, but gradually morphs into a tale of serial murder and corporate trickery spanning several continents and later takes in complicated international financial fraud and the buried evil past of a wealthy Swedish industrial family.

I found this book extremely engaging and full of action and came to regret many times that I had an audio version instead of a regular paper book. I also enjoyed immensely the amount details about everything - the publishing business, twisted Swedish family, corporate crime, history and political order of Sweden, etc. I am guessing if you don't care to read about any of this subjects, this book is not for you, because it is packed with this information.

My only qualm about this book, a small one, was the characterization. The character of Mikael Blomkvist smelled of a male wish fulfillment fantasy, the one where a man is adored by all women, gets laid all the time and always gets lauded for his stellar bedroom skills. Lisbeth Salander also felt a little shaky and I thought Asberger's decease didn't quite account for her strange personality. I thought her antisocial behavior was inconsistent.

This however didn't spoil my reading experience. I am eager to move on to "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and see what Mikael and Lisbeth are up to next. ...more

TatianaBrian wrote: "I had similar thoughts about wish-fulfillment Mickael, but I thought maybe that's the point. The ending throws into relief that, despiteBrian wrote: "I had similar thoughts about wish-fulfillment Mickael, but I thought maybe that's the point. The ending throws into relief that, despite his good qualities (protagonist), perhaps he is also a man w..."

Olii can't believe it that ppl can have such opinion about This book...so many diverties in the world...:)..good
Jul 20, 2012 10:32PM

SaraIt started out slowly and I tossed aside bored. After hearing people go on and on about it I decided to give it another try. I am glad I did at page15It started out slowly and I tossed aside bored. After hearing people go on and on about it I decided to give it another try. I am glad I did at page150 I am totally hooked.....more
Mar 01, 2013 09:25PM

He slapped her hard. Salander opened her eyes wide, but before she could react, he grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her on to the bed. The violence caught her by surprise. When she tried to turn over, he pressed her down on the bed and straddled her.

That's just to give you a little taste of what one is dealing with by picking up this book. If you can handle that and the previous x amount of paragraphs and the following x amount of paragraphs, you're golden. If that sort of makes that thing

He slapped her hard. Salander opened her eyes wide, but before she could react, he grabbed her by the shoulder and threw her on to the bed. The violence caught her by surprise. When she tried to turn over, he pressed her down on the bed and straddled her.

That's just to give you a little taste of what one is dealing with by picking up this book. If you can handle that and the previous x amount of paragraphs and the following x amount of paragraphs, you're golden. If that sort of makes that thing in your throat rise up a little bit and make your mouth taste sour, you might reconsider reading this book.

Carry on.

I wasn't going to read this book, ever. But then I saw the theater up the street from me (a cool one that plays those indie and art films, and their popcorn is always sort of either stale or slightly burnt, and the employees all have an air of snootiness - it's one of my favorite places in town) is showing the foreign movie. My first thought was, "When did they make a movie of this book?" My second thought was, "Dammit. I sort of want to see that movie." My third thought was, "Sonsofbitches. I can't see it until I read it." (Yes, I'm hard on myself, thanks.) So last weekend when we went out of town I decided it was the best time to purchase it and read it. The mini-break was going to entail my boyfriend spending hours playing guitars with his brother and then later with his BFF, and his brother's fiance and his BFF's wife were all conveniently elsewhere for the most part, so I had the fantastic opportunity to tag along and not have to do a damn thing. I sat on the couch/futon/floor and read. I read a freaking lot. This was the book I had along to read.

It passed the time. It didn't bore me. It held my attention.

And... that's about it.

It didn't turn my world upside down, or even teeter it necessarily. This is what I like to refer to as a nice popcorn read. I didn't have to give it a lot of thought, the story sort of did the work for me, I was just an innocent and willing bystander. I actually got a little annoyed the few times when it felt like I was beginning to have to work. Like figuring out who the hell Larsson was talking about at any given moment - he was apparently one of those authors who liked to use a character's first name in one sentence and then refer to the same character by their last name in the next sentence. What's up with that? Make a freaking decision and stick with it. Eventually I stopped caring so much.

My biggest annoyance with the book (and likely to be the most offense to lovers of this book who stumble across my humble review here) was not the violence and the rape; it actually was Lisbeth Salander. The female protagonist. Okay, so she's cool. I get that. She's Hotty-McHotterson, all corporate and world-weary and a computer hacker to boot. She's pierced and inked, and for some reason this is such a source of fascination for Larsson (and apparently everyone who reads this book). Every time Salander comes into the story there is a mention about her piercings, her surly attitude, her tough clothes, her tattoos. At one point another character counts her tattoos. Six. Six. This apparently contributes to some point Larsson was trying to make that Salander is a social freak, but he's still clearly obsessed with the image of her. For the record, numerous piercings, surly attitudes, tough clothes and six tattoos sums up just about every female I know. It's not all that bizarre. This is, after all, the 21st century. Anyone who lived through the 80s/90s either embodies all of those things or at least doesn't bat an eyelash at those things in others. Maybe it's different in Sweden. Maybe they're just now getting the whole dyed-hair-pierced-faces-crazy-tattoos craze there. Wow. Way to go, Sweden. Maybe if you all hadn't spent the last 30 years listening to ABBA and Europe obsessively, you might actually not find kick-ass girls in boots all that magical.

All of these unfair generalizations aside, I can honestly say that I read this book and I'm not all that excited about it. I'm not dying to read the next one, but I'm sure I will eventually (probably if they make a movie of it too). I'm certainly not waiting with bated breath for the third book in the trilogy to come out. I guess I'm just not that fascinated by Salander in particular, so I don't really care what happens to her next. Maybe the movie will make me feel differently. We'll see.

ETA (01/14/12): I have since read The Girl Who Played with Fire which I enjoyed more than this first book, though my impression of Lisbeth hadn't changed that much. I have also seen the Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which I liked more than the book because the performances were fantastic, Fincher is a wonderful director, and I felt like the characters could breathe which is something I felt they were unable to do in the book because they were so constricted and pigeon-holed....more

ElMike wrote: "I loved it, it was a great written book. I think i finished it in a week, reading at work when i had a minute and a half, staying up lateMike wrote: "I loved it, it was a great written book. I think i finished it in a week, reading at work when i had a minute and a half, staying up late to read "just the next chapter". Anf when it was done ibwrn..."

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Mike. I still have to read the third book, but hope to get to that some time this year....more
Feb 22, 2015 02:22PM

Larsson takes what seemed at the outset to be a juicy 'locked-island-mystery plot' and turns it first into an insightful family saga and then into a scathing political and social commentary that forces us to think about such a wide variety of themes and aspects that we normally refuse to accept as part of society. It takes an author like Larsson to shove it in our faces in all its stinking ugliness for us to stop turning the blind eye at these atrocities.

Do not mistake this for a mere fictionalLarsson takes what seemed at the outset to be a juicy 'locked-island-mystery plot' and turns it first into an insightful family saga and then into a scathing political and social commentary that forces us to think about such a wide variety of themes and aspects that we normally refuse to accept as part of society. It takes an author like Larsson to shove it in our faces in all its stinking ugliness for us to stop turning the blind eye at these atrocities.

Do not mistake this for a mere fictional work with imagined crimes. It has firm foundations in reality. In my opinion, the whole plot is a thin wrap-sheet thrown around the brutal truths of real crimes. Larsson has extensive knowledge of the most heinous crimes and he has written extensively about them for his entire professional career. This expertise shows through in his description of such acts of unimaginable cruelty with an almost nonchalant objectivity, with a careless leaving out of the gory details and focus on the trivial aspects of the act that sends shivers down our spine.

Larsson uses his investigative style of presentation and his two main characters and an extremely dysfunctional family to work in an amazing variety of potent themes into his first book. I cannot wait to see what he’ll do in the second one. Some of the themes explored in detail are:

Online Privacy

This is not part of the plot but Larsson seems to be sending out a warning about how deadly information can be in the wrong hands and how easily accessible any private info about you stored in digital form is. You are exposed and absolutely naked to a determined digital assault and there is nothing you can do about it. Of course in the novel it is never misused but the threat is always hanging in the air - if an uneducated girl and her friends can get the most private information about the most protected individuals in the country, what kind of a world are we heading into? And is it really bad? Food for thought...

Feminism

No matter which way you look at it, this work will have to defined as one of the most wrathful outcries against society's attitude towards women. The entire story is about the enormous acts of cruelty committed against women and the absolute indifference to it by everyone who is supposed to care. It is also about the different responses that these women have in such an uncaring society. Which brings us to the most important theme of the book in my opinion:

Morality and Allocation of Blame

The book is truly about three paths that a victim can take after an abused childhood.

One of the characters suffers abuse and decides to become an abuser himself and embrace it as a fact of life

The second one suffers abuse and decides to run away from that life and live faraway and sheltered. No attempt is made to punish the abuser or to report it.

The third character too suffers abuse but decides to confront it and return it with a vengeance. No violence or abuse is tolerated and any reaction is justified for this character.

The fourth is the invisible character of what we expect a person to do in such a situation - report it, seek help from the authorities who are supposed to protect them. The society around and the grim reality that prompted the book gives the outcome to this course of action.

Now the key point to me was that Larsson does not condemn any of them - he makes different characters speak in defense for each of these responses and lets us wonder about which course can ever be called right. in the end he manages to condemn both the society as a whole as well as us, the individuals who allow the society to be so. A caricature of morality.

Law, Crime & BDSM

Larsson's extensive knowledge about the worst forms of crime and the procedure of law allows him to give a gruesome reality to what we usually consider to be just sadistic fiction. He convinces the reader that it is real and all around us if we only cared enough to look.

Nazi History, Military Training, Religious Extremism & Apologetics

These are also touched upon at various points in the books and provides a background, especially of Swedish Nazism, from which the excuses for all the real crimes in the books could spring from.

Journalistic (Professional) Ethics

This too is quite obviously one of the favorite topics for Larsson and it forms a strong undercurrent throughout the book and comes to a head with the firm conviction of the lead character that he is finally a corrupt journalist. He is reassured that he has done the right thing by choosing between being a professional and being a human being. But we as the readers, the character and the author, all know that this is not remotely convincing. Justice was meted out selectively and subjectively in the end and even though it feels right, that is only because of personal knowledge. Is that enough?

Financial & Economic Commentary, Industrial Espionage and Hacker-lore

Large parts of the book goes into great detail about industrial politics and machinations and is sometimes quite boring to be frank, but it adds credence to the plot and has to be borne out. The elaborate hacker methodology too is a drag at times but remains mostly interesting and strangely disturbing.

The financial interplay and the economic commentary sounds a bit forced but Larsson still manages to give out some forceful ideas such as:

“We’re experiencing the largest single drop in the history of the Swedish stock exchange—and you think that’s nonsense?”

“You have to distinguish between two things—the Swedish economy and the Swedish stock market. The Swedish economy is the sum of all the goods and services that are produced in this country every day. There are telephones from Ericsson, cars from Volvo, chickens from Scan, and shipments from Kiruna to Skövde.

That’s the Swedish economy, and it’s just as strong or weak today as it was a week ago.” He paused for effect and took a sip of water.

“The Stock Exchange is something very different. There is no economy and no production of goods and services. There are only fantasies in which people from one hour to the next decide that this or that company is worth so many billions, more or less. It doesn’t have a thing to do with reality or with the Swedish economy.”

“So you’re saying that it doesn’t matter if the Stock Exchange drops like a rock?”

“No, it doesn’t matter at all,” Blomkvist said in a voice so weary and resigned that he sounded like some sort of oracle.

His words would be quoted many times over the following year.

Family & Incest

What it means to be a family and the inevitable nature of family relationships too seem to haunt Larsson and he gives free reign to his fears and troubles about family life, incest, indifference and corporate life affecting personal relations. He also asks the question of whether we can ever truly judge a person based on corporate success without knowing his relationships with his family and his personal life.

There are probably other important ones that I have failed to mention but these were, in my opinion, the things that the book was meant to shine a torchlight on.

On The Characters

I found this in an interview with Larsson and it captures the enigma of the two amazing main characters:

“I considered Pippi Longstocking,” he said, referring to the most famous creation of the Swedish children’s author Astrid Lindgren, a girl so strong she could carry a horse. “What would she be like today? What would she be like as an adult? What would you call a person like that, a sociopath? Hyperactive? Wrong. She simply sees society in a different light. I’ll make her 25 years old and an outcast. She has no friends and is deficient in social skills. That was my original thought.” That thought evolved into Larsson’s formidable heroine, Lisbeth Salander.

But he felt Salander needed a counterweight if his story was to be a success. Once again he turned to one of Lindgren’s characters, this time to Kalle Blomkvist, boy detective. “Only now he’s 45 years old and a journalist [called Mikael Blomkvist]. An altruistic know-it-all who publishes a magazine called Millennium. The story will revolve around the people who work there.”

Personal Impressions

While I loved the book wholeheartedly, I still had a few unfavorable impressions:

Some of the side characters are a bit sketchy not fully realized. Especially some of the family members including Martin who did not get a gradual transition that a character like him deserved for maximum impact.

The stylistically simple nature of the chapters and the book structure too takes away from the sophistication of the detail and plot. A bit more variety in the technique than a simple shift-of-perspective would have been better and less obvious. Also the tension eases off at all the wrong moments, primarily because Larsson has given a portent of things to come later too easily for a whodunnit. The pace too is not consistent and we spend a lot of time seeing scenery and almost every chapter opens with making coffee or with long uneventful walks.

In the end, the reader does not get the pleasure of a proper whodunnit as there were no hidden clues spread across the book and in spite of homages throughout the book to masters of crime and mystery fiction, Larsson at some point decided to make his book not fit to the thrill of that genre and moved instead to far more sinister territories.

The last section of the book felt much like a filler and had way too much detail and predictable action and could just as well have been left to the reader's imagination. The long winding down has put me off from any tension that would have made me run for the second book immediately. Now that everything is calm and quiet in the Millennium world, I too can take an idyllic break from it all...

A good editor and more time to polish would have made this into a definite modern masterpiece, which I strongly suspect it to be already. But in spite of the flaws we still have an opus and some unforgettable characters that will stay with us for a long time to come.

One Final Note:

All the villains have a Windows PC and all the heroes have an Apple notebook. Splendid thing to use in a book about corporate morality among other things. I think this tipped the scales for the book to be a bestseller!...more

TedRiku wrote: " I was trying to give the impression the book is more than "pop-lit" :) "

Yes, I got that impression. It's an interesting review for that.Riku wrote: " I was trying to give the impression the book is more than "pop-lit" :) "

Yes, I got that impression. It's an interesting review for that. I seem to remember looking up some of the stuff about Laarson that you obviously did, and some of your points may have occurred to me. I think your analysis is very well done.

I just took a quick look at his Wiki article again. As an investigative journalist he had apparently taken some risks, received death threats, etc, so it seems clear that your suggestion here that the novels are more than just crime fiction are likely spot on.

The bit about the father & brother getting all his royalty income after his death is just a wee bit interesting, isn't it? I wonder if a little but of autobiography had crept into this series also? Hm. Very interesting....more
May 22, 2015 07:25AM

Riku SayujTed wrote: "Riku wrote: " I was trying to give the impression the book is more than "pop-lit" :) "

Yes, I got that impression. It's an interesting reviTed wrote: "Riku wrote: " I was trying to give the impression the book is more than "pop-lit" :) "

Yes, I got that impression. It's an interesting review for that. I seem to remember looking up some of the st..."

Good spots, Ted & good imagination too! Who knows, maybe there is something to your speculations too.

But I must say that while reading the book I always got the feeling that somehow Larsson is more invested in the book than he might be letting on......more
updated
May 22, 2015 08:17AM

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.This is really a 1.5 stars. Ok, there was a good mystery during the middle third of the book. THere were alot of characters. There was suspense. AND there was also those first 200+ painful pages of character introduction and back story. That equals 1/3 of the whole book. Who slogged through those first 200 to find out that the mystery picks up? How did this series get so huge?

And there was also a plot that revolved around rape, violence, torture, murder and endless degredation of women. My questThis is really a 1.5 stars. Ok, there was a good mystery during the middle third of the book. THere were alot of characters. There was suspense. AND there was also those first 200+ painful pages of character introduction and back story. That equals 1/3 of the whole book. Who slogged through those first 200 to find out that the mystery picks up? How did this series get so huge?

And there was also a plot that revolved around rape, violence, torture, murder and endless degredation of women. My question is: is this necessary to fictionalize? What do we gain from it?

Of the two main characters, only LisBeth Salander was a character that I cared about and wanted the best for. She also seemed crucial to the plot. Mikael "Kalle" Blomvquist had no character arc. He was not a dynamic character - just a detective with no growth or change.

I just didn't get it, but I slogged through for book club and the right of free expression!...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.Not sure what all the hype was about. The first 1/3 of the book showed promise. Two seperate characters who will soon cross paths. Kind of classic mystery story telling. But then it has some moments of perversity that didn't really need to be in the story. Kind of creepy and weird. I guess there is not a lot to do in Sweden. The second part they are together on an island trying to solve a mystery that was never really engaging. They had to find out what happened to a girl forty years ago. Wow!Not sure what all the hype was about. The first 1/3 of the book showed promise. Two seperate characters who will soon cross paths. Kind of classic mystery story telling. But then it has some moments of perversity that didn't really need to be in the story. Kind of creepy and weird. I guess there is not a lot to do in Sweden. The second part they are together on an island trying to solve a mystery that was never really engaging. They had to find out what happened to a girl forty years ago. Wow! Exciting stuff. Oh and some family members were part of the Nazi party sixty years ago. Uh ok. Not sure why that is relevant but every good mystery needs a Nazi or two I'm sure. The story brings out more sexual darkness (I can see the tourist ads now for Sweden) and disolves into a weird sexual torture/homosexual/incest tale. No Beastiality? C'mon! I feel cheated! The last 1/3 of the book was never really needed because the mystery is over and it basically takes the author 100 pages to wrap it up. Oh and we find out his longtime lover is into B&D and S&M. Why this is important? I have no idea. But it was important to Stieg. I like to call him Stieg because, even though he is dead, I feel that we are on a first name basis after the author uses "buttplug" in his book. It was not that great of a book. I am shocked at all the great reviews. A girlfriend of mine agreed with all the problems I had with the book yet she still loved it. This seems to be the case with many book groups. Why? I don't understand admitting the book is crap but still loving it. The end results were not remotely believable. A woman comes off a sheep ranch where she has been living for the last forty years and immediately takes over a fortune 500 type company. Uh, ok? Characters were either tossed aside quickly (then why have them?) or never developed. Another reviewer mentioned the product placement. I did find it strange that the author seemed to have a Mac fetish among many others. Also, his main character is the self appointed moral watchdog of companies (because capitalism is evil I guess) yet can't keep his zipper zipped. This book did not encourage me to visit Sweden any time soon. Also, as an Elvis fan, I did not appreciate the last line in the book. I just saw the Swedish film adaptation of the book and I actually enjoyed it. This was the first time I have ever said, "The film was better than the book." Now I hear there will be an American version. Which we all know will be crap. ...more

AnthonyIvanho wrote: "I agree Tony. This book does not live up to the hype. I'll grant Stieg knows how to develop a plot with tremendous pace and build up buIvanho wrote: "I agree Tony. This book does not live up to the hype. I'll grant Stieg knows how to develop a plot with tremendous pace and build up but... when all was finally reveled it turned out to be so...so...."

Thanks to the slew of Swedish and Hollywood movies, everyone knows that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a story of a kickass hacker Lisbeth Salander who has the eponymous tattoo and a knack for solving decades-old murders.

Well, not exactly. Lisbeth is awesome and badass, no doubt there, but this book is so much more than just her story, and focusing solely on that undermines the message Stieg Larsson was sending.

The original Swedish title is Men Who Hate Women and it is precisely what theThanks to the slew of Swedish and Hollywood movies, everyone knows that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a story of a kickass hacker Lisbeth Salander who has the eponymous tattoo and a knack for solving decades-old murders.

Well, not exactly. Lisbeth is awesome and badass, no doubt there, but this book is so much more than just her story, and focusing solely on that undermines the message Stieg Larsson was sending.

The original Swedish title is Men Who Hate Women and it is precisely what the story is about. (*)

* I am pretty sure it received its Book Witness Protection Program name change treatment to avoid being seen as "that feminist crap" in the English-speaking society. Where "feminist" sadly may still be viewed as an insult.

Apparently a teenage Larsson witnessed and failed to stop rape of a young woman. He was so affected by it that he wrote his magnum opus to make amends for the witnessed atrocity. Thus we have Men Who Hate Women, which is a short description of the focus of his entire Millenium series. Larsson speaks up - angrily, loudly, with conviction - on behalf of not just Salander but all women who have been marginalized, dismissed, paternalised, silenced, treated as inferior, treated as property, overlooked, infantilized, sexualized, assaulted, and murdered.

Larsson, like his protagonist Blomkvist, was an investigative journalist who specialized in airing out stuff that many "higher-ups" would want to see left alone. (**)

** To quote Terry Pratchett (all bow to his genius), "It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it."

This book is an angry and poignant social commentary on the right-wing extremism, prejudice, Nazi leanings, and of course misogyny that still permeate even the quintessential European paradise country of Sweden. Larsson condemns all this, and in his journalism-like style does not hold back the slightest bit. And it is often an uncomfortable read as we see and recognize all those little societal bits and conventions that make these prejudices and even violence possible.

Larsson may not be the most skillful writer, his prose may suffer from long-windedness and overabundance of details (seriously, at times it reads like a cross between a diary and a shopping catalog), but he has strong opinions on painful subjects and is not afraid to let them be known. He had this attitude both in his journalism and his fiction, and I applaud him for that. 3 stars only because of weak prose, but full marks for content....more

CrabbygirlI didn't know those details about his bio - maybe I need to rethink my review... but spot-on with that 'shopping guide' comment. I wonder if it's theI didn't know those details about his bio - maybe I need to rethink my review... but spot-on with that 'shopping guide' comment. I wonder if it's the IKEA in him?...more
Nov 14, 2013 09:49AM

BooksarethebestI love this book because it shows the reality about violence against Women.
Apr 30, 2014 03:55PM

we are in low-three land here. but at least i am learning things about sweden! for example: ladies in sweden just kind of shrug off sexual abuse! they are rape-teflon! this i am learning from the facts provided at the beginning of chapters, and from various characters' reactions to events. they just brush themselves off and go back to eating sandwiches. yes, that is another thing i learned: the swedes eat sandwiches. exclusively. if you excise every occurrence of the words "coffee" and "sandwichwe are in low-three land here. but at least i am learning things about sweden! for example: ladies in sweden just kind of shrug off sexual abuse! they are rape-teflon! this i am learning from the facts provided at the beginning of chapters, and from various characters' reactions to events. they just brush themselves off and go back to eating sandwiches. yes, that is another thing i learned: the swedes eat sandwiches. exclusively. if you excise every occurrence of the words "coffee" and "sandwiches" from the text, you will be left with a book maybe half the size of what it is now. it is like larsson had some sort of writing tic that when he was stuck for what the characters should do next, he would just bang out, "eat sandwiches and coffee". sweden is overall a sexually permissive country - women will share their men with a "no harm done" attitude of complacency - there will be handshakes and smiles all around. and perhaps a sandwich! sweden's prisons are fun places where a guy can really get some rest before he goes back into the world to sex up some more ladies - consensually, of course. these are the wonders of sweden, as presented by the girl with the dragon tattoo.

so those constitute my "ughs"

i really just don't understand the mass appeal of this book. there are crimes committed in this book for no other reason than character development. that, to me, is an odd way to write a book. there is a density to the writing that is enjoyable, but the dénouement is incredibly abrupt, and then there is just... more story... true, it is a wrapping-up of another plotline, but the energy that should follow the big whodunit seems compromised by about fifty pages of ...more plot. the reader becomes emotionally invested in one storyline and intellectually invested in the other... after the emotional plot is spent, who wants to read a long subplot wrap-up? this is coming from someone who doesn't read a lot of mysteries, but knows how they should be shaped. and i rather liked the subplot wrap-up, but my attentions as a reader were confused.

questions i am forced to ask:is the hype just because of author-death? and the mystique therein? because this guy ain't no mishima, is all i'm saying.is there a distinction between autism and sociopathy?what was the point of the character of cecelia?are three facial piercings and 4 tattoos really considered to be that "weird" and excessive in sweden?

and while we are on the subject - i am so sick of hot-goth-computer-hacker characters. i was sick of it wayyyy back here:

and here:

and i don't even watch this show, but i am aware of it:

i announce:it is enough already. get a new cliché. like "average-build girl who sometimes listens to dave matthews". or "girl who dresses office-appropriate and sometimes smokes pot on weekends". cybergoth chicks are over, people...

the book is fine, i may or may not read the other ones - this one was for class, but now that i have read one, i am almost compelled to finish it off. this is the reason i don't usually read genre fiction. i cannot commit to 11 books, or whatever... but i may have just mentally committed to 2....more

RichardHilarious—what a great review! You've articulated so many things I've been semi-consciously thinking while reading the first 103 pages. I'm reading itHilarious—what a great review! You've articulated so many things I've been semi-consciously thinking while reading the first 103 pages. I'm reading it because (1) I loved the films and just watched the first one again, and (2) it's one of the few modern fiction books I own at the moment, and I've really neglected modern literature in favour of pursuing classics. I've already abandoned one book this year (a Jeffrey Archer novel) so I'm going to soldier on and hope this gets more satisfying. Anyway, it's very gratifying to know that intelligent, witty and erudite people like your cat have the same criticisms that I do....more
Feb 09, 2015 06:47PM

**Dude, I just watched the Swedish film "När mörkret faller" (When Darkness Falls), a crappy movie about violence in Stockholm. But it made me think back to this book, which constantly refers to stats about violence against women in Sweden. Something is seriously up in Sweden. Gives me the creeps even more than Swtizerland.**

Wow. 500+ pages and entertaining right up to the last sentence? Lingers in the mind long after the book is finished? Geez. I didn't think it could be done in today's fiction**Dude, I just watched the Swedish film "När mörkret faller" (When Darkness Falls), a crappy movie about violence in Stockholm. But it made me think back to this book, which constantly refers to stats about violence against women in Sweden. Something is seriously up in Sweden. Gives me the creeps even more than Swtizerland.**

Wow. 500+ pages and entertaining right up to the last sentence? Lingers in the mind long after the book is finished? Geez. I didn't think it could be done in today's fiction world, except books for the morons who feel the need to "research" The da Vinci Code. Time to create a new shelf for this one, entitled: kicked ass.

There are several mysteries going on in this novel, from the strange disappearance of a young girl decades ago, to financial scandals in the curious backdrop of Sweden. Definitely original. The characters are fascinating and the story, engrossing.

The book gets four stars for keeping me massively entertained for the better part of the week, but it loses a star for some small issues that drove me so nuts that they are worth mentioning:

1) All financial terms are reported in the Swedish kroner, which is fair considering that it's a Swedish book. However, the translator could have at least added the equivalent of Euros or Pounds or Dollars so that the majority of readers -- that is, people not familiar with the value of the Swedish currency -- don't have to go on xe.com to try to figure out just how much money we're talking about.

2) Uhhhh ... can we have an American translation, please? I TEACH ESL FROM BRITISH TEXTBOOKS, AND I STILL HAD TO TEXT MY BRITISH FRIEND AND ASK FOR DEFINITIONS. One word: Haberdashery? FABRIC STORE!!! Yeah.

3) The family tree in the first few pages helps, but the character names and places are so close that they're endlessly confusing if you're not Swedish: Henrik, Harold (who live in Hedeby near Hedestad, by the way), Harriet, Berger the lover and Birger the crazy relative, Gustav, Gregor, Gerda, Gottfried .... ARHGHG. Drove me nuts!

4) The codes in Harriet's notebook and the mystery of why Cecilia Vanger appears in every photograph = predictable. That being said, the rest of the book is such a nightmare explosion of "who the hell saw that coming?!" that it makes up for it.

5) "Left-wing media liberal" + "socialist/communist" Swedish dude (just quoting FOX News here) = our author, who saturates the novel with his politics. I'm a liberal, so I don't care, but when characters become the mouthpiece for your political views, you lose creativity points with me.

On the whole? A great guilty-please/summer-read. Kicked ass for the most part. Read it! :) ...more

In 1966 sixteen-year-old Harriet Vanger, daughter of the CEO of the large family-run Vanger Corporation, goes missing from her family's island community and is never seen again. Not even a body is found, and her great uncle, Henrik Vanger, has explored every possible lead to discover what happened to his one and only favourite family member.

Over the last forty years her disappearance has become Henrik's obsession, and he's positive someone in the family murdered her - but they never found a motiIn 1966 sixteen-year-old Harriet Vanger, daughter of the CEO of the large family-run Vanger Corporation, goes missing from her family's island community and is never seen again. Not even a body is found, and her great uncle, Henrik Vanger, has explored every possible lead to discover what happened to his one and only favourite family member.

Over the last forty years her disappearance has become Henrik's obsession, and he's positive someone in the family murdered her - but they never found a motive, and without one he doesn't know who to suspect. Now, in 2005, Henrik has little time left as he grows old and plenty of money to indulge in his obsession one last time.

Mikael Blomkvist is a forty-something financial journalist and editor of Millennium magazine, a magazine he co-founded which prides itself on investigative journalism. But Blomkvist and the magazine have just suffered their first big blow: he's been convicted of libel against one of the biggest business entrepreneurs in Sweden, Hans-Erik Wennerström.

Wanting to keep a low profile and pretend he's been fired from the magazine in order to try and save it from further attack by Wennerström, Henrik Vanger's proposition comes at an ideal time. Mikael's father once worked for the Vanger Corporation, and Harriet herself had babysat little Mikael a few times. Henrik offers Blomkvist a year-long contract with the pretext of writing a history of the family - an autobiography of Henrik - while his real mission is to discover what happened to Harriet.

After some convincing, Blomkvist takes the job - but when he discovers the first new evidence since the tragedy occurred, he realises he needs help - and who better to go to than the private investigator who did such a good job on Blomkvist when Henrik hired her?

Lisbeth Salander is a quiet, secretive young woman who excels at what she does because she's also a genius hacker. With a troubled past and a dicey present, her trust in Blomkvist takes her by surprise. The two team up to discover the truth about Harriet, and to take Wennerström down.

Thanks to a friend of mine, who also recommended this to me, I knew the English translation of the original title before I started reading this, which is Men Who Hate Women. This is actually very interesting and worth mentioning. It's certainly an apt title; perhaps not obvious at first, after a while it becomes a very clear theme. It may also give it away a bit. But I can also understand why they went with a very different title for the English translation. Lisbeth is "the girl with the dragon tattoo" - among other tattoos and piercings - and she is one of two main characters. The second book's English title is "The girl who played with fire", so you can see they're going with their own theme here.

More importantly, though, such a title is more appealing to an English-language audience. Titles, like covers, that feature girls or women - or wives - are popular and sell well. This is an intriguing title, and doesn't give away the genre. When this book first came out, the hardcover was marketed to a literary crowd. This is the mass market paperback edition, and with a quote from Harlan Coben on the cover along with the style of cover itself (and the long, narrow format), it is more clearly pitched at the Mystery mob (hence why both my parents-in-law read this before I did).

It is a mystery, and a thriller at times, and a detective book - but it's also a political and economic commentary, has one of the more original and daring heroines of the genre, and is invigorating in its details. I don't read many mystery novels, because (ironically), I find them boring. Aside from a quiet patch at about the two-quarter mark, I never found this book boring, even though not a whole lot happens until the last third.

Both Blomkvist and Salander are engaging protagonists, for very different reasons. Things happen to them that will make you upset and angry, especially Salander, whose side story holds you enthralled and revolted at the same time, as does the truth about Harriet - but there's nothing gratuitous here, or unnecessarily included or described: it's all relevant.

The pacing is superb (yes, even with that "quiet patch"), and the plotting cleverly controlled. The cold of Sweden - at times down to -35F (which makes the 44F of Shiver seem somewhat laughable) - was vividly realised, as was the setting of Hedeby Island. I would have liked to "see" more of Sweden - everything was terribly familiar - but a mystery book isn't really the place for that.

This is a very mature book, with themes that make you despair yet are handled so compassionately that you are never alienated. I also enjoyed the economic side of the other plot line, and Blomkvist's words towards the end were very apt considering the recent problems with the American stock exchange and subsequent recession, when he's asked by a TV host about "the fact that Sweden's economy was now headed for a crash." He calls it nonsense, and goes on to explain something which I think we all tend to forget:

"You have to distinguish between two things - the Swedish economy and the Swedish stock market. The Swedish economy is the sum of all the goods and services that are produced in this country every day. There are telephones from Ericsson, cars from Volvo, chickens from Scan, and shipments from Kiruna to Skövde. That's the Swedish economy, and it's just as strong or weak today as it was a week ago. ... The Stock Exchange is something very different. There is no economy and no production of goods and services. There are only fantasies in which people from one hour to the next decide that this or that company is worth so many billions, more or less. It doesn't have a thing to do with reality or with the Swedish economy." (p819)

Sure that's a simplistic way of putting it, but his description of the Stock Exchange pretty neatly sums up the way I've always perceived it - and scorned it. So I enjoyed this exchange, and the whole Wennerström sub plot, as much as the mystery about Harriet itself.

The other side of the commentary that's strong and interesting is the issue of journalistic responsibility, and ethics. Decisions are made at the end that are highly questionable, but there are no easy answers - Blomkvist is the voice of our conscience here, and yet you can see the other side too. I don't envy him his position!

I have no complaints with this book, but I have one to the publisher: I really hate the new, narrow format of mass market paperbacks. (Thankfully, only a few books get printed like this.) They're just so tall and ... skinny. It certainly doesn't save any paper, and makes me feel like I'm falling off the edge of the page at the end of each line, which barely fits five words. I don't care for the larger typeface and roomy layout either - I like tighter lines and smaller fonts, personally. That would have saved paper!...more

shall i compare thee to a cinematic adaptation of one of my favorite books?thou art more genuine and less mass marketable.rough cgi does shake my sense of disbelief,and the movie's adaptation hath all too short a running time.sometimes too overemphasized the plot and action sequences,and often the depth of character dimmed.and every sequel from prequel's quality declines,by chance, or budgets allowed to expand, untrimmed.but thy entertainment value shall not fadenorode to a dragon-tattooed girl

shall i compare thee to a cinematic adaptation of one of my favorite books?thou art more genuine and less mass marketable.rough cgi does shake my sense of disbelief,and the movie's adaptation hath all too short a running time.sometimes too overemphasized the plot and action sequences,and often the depth of character dimmed.and every sequel from prequel's quality declines,by chance, or budgets allowed to expand, untrimmed.but thy entertainment value shall not fadenor be compromised by translation from one medium to anoth'r.nor shall bloggers brag that the original was betterwhen in eternal lines to time thou ares't original.so long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,so long lives this: the book was better, and so are thee. ...more

Kleopatra OlympiouI'm planning to read this book soon so I can't really say anything content related about this review. What I can say is this is brilliant. I honestlyI'm planning to read this book soon so I can't really say anything content related about this review. What I can say is this is brilliant. I honestly giggled reading that first line of yours!...more
May 28, 2014 11:30PM

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.I have so many negative thoughts about this book. So here's a list of complaints:

a.) Either this was very poorly translated or very poorly written. I've heard arguments for both. Tons of unnecessary details (all the coffee stops!), repetition of things we already know, paragraphs about nothing just petering out. Even at times when I was enjoying the plot, I felt as though I had to fight my way through dull writing.

b.) For as dull as it is in most parts, this book is waaaay too over the top in otI have so many negative thoughts about this book. So here's a list of complaints:

a.) Either this was very poorly translated or very poorly written. I've heard arguments for both. Tons of unnecessary details (all the coffee stops!), repetition of things we already know, paragraphs about nothing just petering out. Even at times when I was enjoying the plot, I felt as though I had to fight my way through dull writing.

b.) For as dull as it is in most parts, this book is waaaay too over the top in others. Butt plugs?! What is my reaction to that even supposed to be? (For the curious: it was a big old WTF face.)

While I think there is a place for graphic rape and torture scenes (more in film than in books, because it's not as hard to convey intent in a multi-dimensional visual format), I didn't see the need for them here. Salander being the survivor of rape and perpetrator of revenge did not make me root for her here -- as it might have in a film -- because it was only a tangential and forgotten part of the story, rather than being necessary to it. We don't see her dealing with the aftereffects of her abuse at all; she's not fundamentally changed because of it, aside from taking her revenge. Which leads me to:

c.) Salander's supposed to be this amazingly kickass character that I'll just automatically love, right? Umm, no. Aside from knowing that she's a good investigator, sexual but detached, has Asperger's and is kind of ruthless, I felt like she could have been anyone. Really. I looked for some piece of insight or indication that she is a dynamic character that would make me like her, but it never happened. Dressing her up like a punk in a sea of suits is not enough characterization. Perhaps in further books and with time, I'd feel attached to her like I've felt to other mystery series characters, but I'm not really tempted to read on.

d.) The only reason I was invested in the mystery of Harriet Vanger's disappearance is because I thought she'd been murdered. When it turned out she was still alive and had skipped town, I wanted to throw the damn book at a wall.

e.) How freaking over the top was it for the murderer to have a Hostel-style torture chamber right in his house? Does anyone find this seriously scary, instead of laughably stupid? Moreover, does this sort of thing exist outside the world of comic book super villains? Better make sure THAT room's locked when company comes over.

I enjoyed this book so little that after the solution to the Harriet mystery wrapped up, I just skimmed to the end. I have no idea what happened with the Wennerstrom affair, nor do I particularly care. I'm assuming that Blomqvist got some scandalous scoop and super busted him, because that's what happens in utterly predictable books like this one.

SparkleI read (I believe it was in the NY Times) the original title was, "Men Who Hate Women". The book makes far more sense in that context but it is stillI read (I believe it was in the NY Times) the original title was, "Men Who Hate Women". The book makes far more sense in that context but it is still lacking

I was hoodwinked into believing this was a great mystery//thriller. Far from it. The author used 'shock' as intrigue and unrelated dry details as puzzle pieces to the mystery. It was a fail, fail. There were too many details and events that did not further the story or enrich the characters.

I wish I could get my money and time back. My key learning is to sample before buying, regardless of the recommendation....more
Aug 28, 2013 01:55PM

One of the best thrillers I've ever read. Great story, great characters, very intelligent and thoughtful. Writing is nothing special but it doesn't need to be.

___________________________________________

I finally saw the movie a couple of days ago, and I'm a bit conflicted. On the plus side, it conveys the feel of the book very well, and several of the main characters are excellently realized. I particularly liked Lisbeth, who was just perfect. But they have taken some enormous liberties with theOne of the best thrillers I've ever read. Great story, great characters, very intelligent and thoughtful. Writing is nothing special but it doesn't need to be.

___________________________________________

I finally saw the movie a couple of days ago, and I'm a bit conflicted. On the plus side, it conveys the feel of the book very well, and several of the main characters are excellently realized. I particularly liked Lisbeth, who was just perfect. But they have taken some enormous liberties with the story. For example, Erika, who in the book is a central figure, has almost disappeared.

So if you're a purist, you might want to avoid this, but in the end I decided I liked it. I guess it's just a bit too long, and cuts were necessary.

___________________________________________

I just read the following passage in Precious Williams's review of this book, but I have seen at least half a dozen similar ones:

The constant references to sandwiches (you get the impression the Swedes eat at least an entire loaf of bread every day), coffee (how on earth do they manage to sleep?) and breasts became tedious very rapidly.

I can stay silent no longer. Precious and others, I lived in Sweden for most of the 80s, and I can tell that you Stieg Larsson wasn't making it up:

1. Sandwiches. Yes, you're right: Swedes love sandwiches. There's a widespread belief that eating bread is good for you. When I was there, I caught the tailend of a popular campaign by the Ministry of Health, whose tagline was Ät 6-8 skivor bröd om dagen - eat 6-8 slices of bread a day. Moreover, Swedish bread is delicious. I'm thinking about kruskalimpa and rågrut right now and my mouth is watering. If they were on sale here, I'd definitely eat more sandwiches.

2. Coffee. Swedes used to drink more coffee per capita than any other county in the world, though I understand that they've now slipped a couple of places. It's powerful stuff too, but you get used to it. Fun facts: Swedish has a verb fika, meaning "to drink coffee" and a noun, påtår, meaning "a second cup of coffee". You know, the old Eskimo/snow thing.

3. Breasts. Topless sunbathing is popular in Sweden, and Swedes are in general extremely relaxed about nudity. Swedish men have pretty much the same interests as men everywhere else in the world. If I were drunk I'd probably recount an anecdote or two at this point, but as it is I'm afraid you'll just have to take my word for it.

A good book that got screwed up due to poor writingKeeping in mind that the only crime/mystery novels I have read are novels by Dan Brown and novels dealing with financial matters are the ones by Jeffrey Archer, on this basis I can say that this book was a cross between their book but not at par with either, inferior to both.

The premise of the story is not so simple:Meet Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist of financial sectors, but today his accusations against industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom arA good book that got screwed up due to poor writingKeeping in mind that the only crime/mystery novels I have read are novels by Dan Brown and novels dealing with financial matters are the ones by Jeffrey Archer, on this basis I can say that this book was a cross between their book but not at par with either, inferior to both.

The premise of the story is not so simple:Meet Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist of financial sectors, but today his accusations against industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerstrom are proved to be false hence he is fined and sentenced three months in prison for libelling.Trying to get away from his publication house for some time, he lands up at Hedeby island, with Henrik Vanger, retired CEO of Vanger corporation. Henrik asks him to solve the mystery behind murder of her niece, Harriet Vanger. Murder was committed some 36 years ago on same island where entire Vanger family was present on some occasion and island was temporarily cut off from the world due to accident on bridge, the only connecting link. So the island is isolated and there is chaos on island due to accident, and in midst of this Harriet disappears, body never found, considered dead. So what unfolds is a locked-room murder mystery.Did I miss something? Yes, Lisbeth Salander.Cold, calculated and the girl with the dragon tattoo. She works as personal investigator at a security firm, her story moves parallel to the Blomkvist’s story until she is hired as detective alongside Blomkvist.

Positive aspects of the story:Let me confess that this is one of the best murder mystery novel I have ever read (though I am not a fan of this genre). At no point I could guess who is the murderer, because there is no hint but when it is disclosed, it perfectly fits with the story. What makes this story even more interesting is that murder was committed 36 years ago, some people present on that day are already dead and some are too old.The characters are excellently portrayed and plus point of the story. Larsson uses subplot to develop characters over pages and pages before jumping into action. Therefore I connected with their thoughts and decisions, except Lisbeth. She has been shown differently and this makes her an interesting character, she downplays emotion and makes unpredictable moves.

What went wrong with such a good story that I rated it only 3 stars.I have heard people say that bad translation can ruin a good story. Well, this sets a perfect example in that case. I’m sure, if Steig Larsson could write such a good story then his prose in English would have been readable and interesting enough. What I’m trying to say is, Reg Keeland (the translator) f**ked up this amazing 5 star novel to a 3 star read. I know that I love sleeping but falling asleep at the climax of the story means seriously bad writing.

Another thing that this book needs other than good translator is a good editor. There is so much unnecessary excessive detailing of electronic gadgets, let me give you example, Lisbeth’s laptop get run over by a vehicle and now she needs to buy a new one, so here the author goes on to give entire configuration of the laptop that was damaged and again the entire configuration of the laptop she is eyeing to buy. One more, one more, Blomkvist relocates to new house and is taking electronic items out of his bag, here each time he takes out a item, the author write about it with its BRAND NAME, Sony laptop, Sanyo sound recorder, this scanner, that portable printer.

And yes, how can I forget all those coffee and sandwich(es). Throughout the entire story, the only things that the characters drank and ate were coffee and sandwich, coffee and sandwich, coffee and sandwich, coffee and sandwich.

Last thing that I didn’t liked was the wrap-up of subplot after the central story has already ended. After the story ended, the author goes on further 50 pages or so to put an end to Wennerstrom affair, which is highly unreadable.

One thing more is that this was published as trilogy, so even when the main characters life is on line and the situation is supposed to be highly tensed, it isn’t because I know that the main characters will survive because there are two books remaining ahead.

Themes explored:This book is originally named- Men who hate Women, and there are many theme explored with abuse of women (in Sweden), like rape, incest, BDSM etc. Many more themes have been explored explicitly in this brilliant review by Riku....more

Ankit AgrawalHave you read the other two parts. I have read them and my views are totally changed. Its more than 5 star. But the editing and commercialism part stiHave you read the other two parts. I have read them and my views are totally changed. Its more than 5 star. But the editing and commercialism part still sticks and sucks. Still it definitely is a must read...more
Nov 22, 2012 05:30AM

Ian WilsonSorry but I have to disagree that it was poorly written. Whether you love or hate the story, I found his writing style very intelligent and more sophiSorry but I have to disagree that it was poorly written. Whether you love or hate the story, I found his writing style very intelligent and more sophisticated than 95 percent of the writers I have sampled in my life. You can definitely tell that he was a journalist before he wrote novels. I literally could not get enough of his writing style, if he had written 50 books in his career I would read every one....more
Sep 05, 2013 06:38PM

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is charged with libel and decides to take some time off from his magazine. Instead, he works to find what happened to Harriet Vanger, the young niece of a wealthy CEO. Meanwhile, punky hacker Lisbeth Salander has her own investigations, which presumably eventually have something to do with Blomkvist and the Vanger family. I don't know, because I couldn't bear to finish this. It usually takes me about a day to read a book. It took me an entire month to slog through lesJournalist Mikael Blomkvist is charged with libel and decides to take some time off from his magazine. Instead, he works to find what happened to Harriet Vanger, the young niece of a wealthy CEO. Meanwhile, punky hacker Lisbeth Salander has her own investigations, which presumably eventually have something to do with Blomkvist and the Vanger family. I don't know, because I couldn't bear to finish this. It usually takes me about a day to read a book. It took me an entire month to slog through less than 300 pages of Larsson's bullshit.

His writing is simultaneously ridonkulously sensational (chapter after chapter of escalatingly SHOCKING! sex acts) and brain-numbingly boring. Page after page of stilted, unbelievably dialog. Constant info dumps in place of action or dialog. Larsson repeats himself on pretty much ever page; nothing is hinted at or unsaid, everything is reiterated. Blomkvist and Salander make no sense as human beings; in 250 pages, I knew more about their computers than I did their inner lives or even, how they talked. I kept slogging through this because everyone rated it so highly, but I seriously do not get why. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Is it all one big parody or something?...more

Penina MezeiThank you for putting my exact thoughts in writing and publishing them here. The book was not worth reading and full of cliches. I read it in Swedish,Thank you for putting my exact thoughts in writing and publishing them here. The book was not worth reading and full of cliches. I read it in Swedish, so the fault is by no means only the translator's. I simply cannot understand the renown and success of this book. - Penina Mezei...more
Jul 21, 2014 05:27AM

WealhtheowThanks for confirming that the Swedish version isn't that much different, Penina! Too bad!
Jul 21, 2014 11:08AM

My second time around with Lisbeth and Blomkvist. Someone should do a study some day about why we are pulled to certain books at certain times - the way our body pulls us toward a banana when it's running low on potassium. One of the things I loved about Larsson when I first read him (and why I return to him) is this kind of artlessness that he has about writing. There's a naturalness to the way he tells the story as if the important thing is giving you the facts as expediently as possible. Of cMy second time around with Lisbeth and Blomkvist. Someone should do a study some day about why we are pulled to certain books at certain times - the way our body pulls us toward a banana when it's running low on potassium. One of the things I loved about Larsson when I first read him (and why I return to him) is this kind of artlessness that he has about writing. There's a naturalness to the way he tells the story as if the important thing is giving you the facts as expediently as possible. Of course, the facts of the story also include what he thinks is interesting about the characters thoughts, feelings, personal history. You get drawn in by this sense that author is being guided in his narration by an instinct, a scent for what is interesting to him (which he assumes will probably be interesting to you as well) and also by what you sense as his delight in discovering the very thing he's writing about as he is writing it. After he died, his life-long partner wrote that Larsson wrote his trilogy as a hobby. He was bored and wanted something fun to do. Can you imagine? I think that's why I am so attracted to his books and why I go back to them as a source of inspiration for my own writing. How beautiful to write with the passion and interest that a hobby draws from us. Yes, literature and art give meaning to our lives and there are serious messages in Larsson's books and tons of darkness. But I think his inventiveness with plot, his ability to mix reality with fiction, his creation of characters we will never forget starts with the playfulness and joy of a man finally finding a little bit of time to be alone with his hobby. ...more

A book on the "Faves" shelf, long time no see! This book is soooo good. I love it so much, the characters are unique, flawed, compelling, the mystery is fascinating. I can't recommend this book higher to lovers of mystery and interesting characters.

Craig WilliamsSo, I finally got around to reading this book, and it was almost entirely due to your glowing recommendation! I have to say, it was pretty stellar! ISo, I finally got around to reading this book, and it was almost entirely due to your glowing recommendation! I have to say, it was pretty stellar! I fell in love with Lisbeth Salander's character as soon as she was introduced and found myself mildly annoyed when she wasn't featured in a chapter. The story was very compelling as well, and certainly went in a direction I didn't expect. Thanks for turning me onto this book!

BTW> I'm definitely excited to see how David Fincher adapts this book onto the big screen. I'm aware of the Swedish movie, and want to see that as well, but Fincher will rock it!...more
Oct 05, 2010 01:02PM

GarrettI agree. The story so well written and it keeps you in the edge if your seat as well . One the best thriller suspense books I read
Apr 25, 2014 11:41PM

- Is everyone here?- We should start anyway.- Okay, well, we have to figure out how to review this damned Dragon Tattoo book. The problem is, everyone and his dog has already reviewed it, and seen the movie. Movies. What’s left to say?- Well, you could say the same thing about Dickens.- All due respect, Larsson is not no Dickens.- True dat.- True dat? Who are you, gangsta-reviewer?- What about the sandwiches and coffee?- ?-Editorial meeting of Bryant Reviews LtdTopic : book 1, Millennium series

- Is everyone here?- We should start anyway.- Okay, well, we have to figure out how to review this damned Dragon Tattoo book. The problem is, everyone and his dog has already reviewed it, and seen the movie. Movies. What’s left to say?- Well, you could say the same thing about Dickens.- All due respect, Larsson is not no Dickens.- True dat.- True dat? Who are you, gangsta-reviewer?- What about the sandwiches and coffee?- ?- You know, you could do a kind of parody, might be funny…- It’s been done! Haven’t you read Joel’s review?- Done!- Done done done!- Also, really, there weren’t that many sandwiches. I counted, there were 7. It’s a bit of a myth.- That’s 7 more than most sane novelists describe in their novels. I bet you could scour the works of Henry James and not find a single sniff of a sandwich.- That’s cause they only eat ptarmigan’s brains on a bed of rocket leaves in Henry James.- What about the blatant product placement? I mean, I assume that’s what this is.- Product placement in a novel? Can you do that?- Well, listen to this bit :

She set her sights on the new Apple PowerBook G4/1.0 GHz in an aluminium case with a PowerPC. 7451 processor with an AltiVec Velocity Engine, 960 megs of R.A.M and a sixty-gig hard drive. It had Blue-Tooth and built-in CD and DVD burners. Page 202.

- Yep, that has to be product placement. It’s like right out of a sales brochure. Outrageous really.- So did anyone like this thing?- Oh sure. It was kind of okay.- Okay? - It’s a thriller, you know, it’s not A la recherché du Temps Tattoo. Also, it’s a serial killer thriller, where the victims are females chopped up in various horrible ways. So it’s a completely ordinary thriller. They say shit like “But for you I would be dead!” and “This can’t be brushed under the carpet!” and “Get out of my house this minute!”

(General laughter)

- What about Salamander?- It’s Salander.- Oh yeah, I did that too. Every time it said Salander I thought it said salamander, it was so crazy.- She was a bit off the peg, didn’t you think?- Yeah, it was like a central casting “hip edgy young female character”.- I liked her.- Everyone likes her. Okay, except you. You too? Okay, vote – who liked her? Okay, that’s three who did, so the rest of you didn’t. All right then, we’ll take a contrarian position on Salander. We’ll say, oh, I don’t know, utterly implausible, Manga cartoon, middle-aged guy’s fantasy girlfriend, the goth version of the manic dream pixie girl, you know, that kind of stuff.- Agreed.- What about the plot?- It was just a big fat thriller so it had a big fat villain who was completely silly and an exciting denouement which I’ve been more excited going through a tunnel in a train to be brutally honest. - Anybody else?- Er… I felt slightly tense. Once.- Oh, and did you notice it took like 80 pages to splutter into life and then another 50 pages after the story ended to wind down and go to sleep?- Well look, there’s a deadline here, this review has to be done by Tuesday evening. Any volunteers?- ….- ….- I’ll do it then- Hey, thanks. And as your reward… you don’t have to read The Emo who Played with Fire or The Emo who Fucked Up the Beehive.- Okay, I appreciate that. - The rest of you watch it… I see any review slackness and Emo with the Beehive is coming right at you.

LindaThis was one of those books where everyone around me l-o-o-o-v-e-d it to the nth degree, and I went along with them, thinking there was something wronThis was one of those books where everyone around me l-o-o-o-v-e-d it to the nth degree, and I went along with them, thinking there was something wrong with me for only thinking it was okay. What was my inferior intellect missing? But now, thanks to you, I will revel in the thought that I stopped reading after the first book. Thanks for a great review, Paul. Well done, sandwiches, salamander and all....more
May 28, 2014 05:07AM

Paul BryantIt was deeply okay, profoundly not-that-bad. But very silly.

I’ve been hearing a lot about how good the Swedish mystery writers are, and if this book is any indication, I’m moving to Stockholm and learning the language because I want to get close to the source.

I’m usually wary when the hype around a book reaches huge proportions and this novel has been a worldwide phenomenon even before I started seeing it all over the bookstores here in America. But this is one example of when the furor is justified.

There are two main characters. Mikael Blomkvist, a vetI’ve been hearing a lot about how good the Swedish mystery writers are, and if this book is any indication, I’m moving to Stockholm and learning the language because I want to get close to the source.

I’m usually wary when the hype around a book reaches huge proportions and this novel has been a worldwide phenomenon even before I started seeing it all over the bookstores here in America. But this is one example of when the furor is justified.

There are two main characters. Mikael Blomkvist, a veteran financial reporter, and Lisbeth Salander, an anti-social punk with a part-time job as a researcher at a security firm.

When the book begins, Blomkvist has just lost a libel case where he had written about criminal wrong doing by a prominent industrialist, Hans-Erik Wennerström. With his reputation in ruins and the magazine he co-owns on the brink of collapse, Blomkvist is summoned to Hedeby Island by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of a wealthy family.

Henrik wants to commission Blomkvist to write a family history, but that’s just a cover story. Henrik’s niece, Harriet, vanished while on Hedeby Island in the early 1960s during a day when the island was cut off from the mainland due to a massive traffic accident on its only bridge. It's the ultimate locked room (or locked island) mystery. Over 30 years of investigation have convinced Henrik that Harriet was murdered, very possibly by someone in the Vanger family, and he wants Blomkvist to comb through the massive amount of material he’s collected and see if he can find anything new about the case.

Blomkvist is hesitant, but Henrik not only offers to help cover his financial problems due to the libel case and with the failing magazine, he also claims to have evidence that would prove that Wennerström is a criminal and will help clear Blomkvist’s reputation. Blomkvist agrees and moves to Hedeby Island to begin the research.

As this is going on, a parallel story revolving around Lisbeth Salander is also being told. Salander is so anti-social that she can barely function in society and has to endure legal guardianship by the state since it decided that she’s incapable of managing her own life. However, Salander is really a brilliant researcher and computer genius who just can't stand people.

Originally hired by Henrik Vanger to vet Blomkvist, Salander becomes intrigued with Blomkvist’s libel case and begins checking out Wennerström on her own. However, changes in her legal status concerning her guardianship soon present her with severe problems in her own life.

There were several things I loved about this book, and one of them is the leisurely pace it has for the first half. Most of this portion consists of Blomkvist sitting in a cabin on Hedeby Island reading about Harriet while Salander is in a desperate struggle to reassert some independence against her new guardian. The key part of the mystery about Harriet really doesn’t pick up until the second half of the novel, but it didn’t bother me a bit. I was so caught up in the story that I was perfectly happy to let it unfold as slowly as it wanted.

I also loved the characters. Blomkvist is a great reporter and a very decent man, but he can also be selfish and a bit of a shit. The book doesn’t pull any punches in indicating that he isn’t a good father and is a bit too casual in his relationships with women. Salander is unfriendly and lacks any social graces at all so she should be unpleasant to read about. But even before the book engages your sympathy for her due to an extremely bad situation she finds herself in, I couldn’t help but like the damaged girl who has such an anti-authority streak that she refuses to ask for help from the police or lawyers when she has every right and reason to. She’d rather handle her problems herself than engage an authority figure, and she’s got a mean streak.

Another thing I liked is that even though this was written before the worldwide 2008 financial implosion, the author Stieg Larsson, who was a financial reporter in Sweden, uses the subplot about Wennerström to illustrate how he felt that financial reporters were entirely too close to the financial bigwigs and no real investigative reporting was being done. Recent revelations about guys like Bernie Madoff makes it clear that Larsson was ringing an alarm bell. Too bad no one listened.

Fair warning for those considering reading. The original Swedish title of this book is Men Who Hate Women, and you’ll see why if you read it. Although not overly explicit, there are several segments dealing with rape and sexual assault.

Larsson apparently wrote mysteries as a hobby and had completed three but hadn’t tried to publish them until shortly before his death a few years ago. I’m already bummed that there are only going to be two more of these terrific books by him to read....more

“Everyone has secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.”

This was intense and suspensful, it was a thriller to its very core. It excited and got to me in a way that no thriller ever has. Once I started reading I was so lost in it, in the simple but yet outstanding writing, in the amazing real, passionate and original characters. As soon as I finished the book I was so amazed that I immediately downloaded the movie (starring Daniel Craig and Mara Rooney) and enjoyed what I had re

“Everyone has secrets. It's just a matter of finding out what they are.”

This was intense and suspensful, it was a thriller to its very core. It excited and got to me in a way that no thriller ever has. Once I started reading I was so lost in it, in the simple but yet outstanding writing, in the amazing real, passionate and original characters. As soon as I finished the book I was so amazed that I immediately downloaded the movie (starring Daniel Craig and Mara Rooney) and enjoyed what I had read, now on the screen.

What is there to talk about? The fact that the heroine, Lisbeth, was so dark and so freaky yet most normal than the scumbags that had passed and still were in her messed-up life. If you think you know fucked up then you haven't met Lisbeth Salander. A girl who has been seen and lived all the hardship life can give to a human being.

Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist living in Sweden. He's suddenly called into an island where a man wants to talk him into writing an autobiography for his family, what he really wants though is for him to shed light upon an event that has haunted him for 40 years since the disappearance of his great-nice who he believes was murdered by some member of his family. Mikael comes face to face with the Vanger family and realize that most of them are a little bit crazy. Bit by bit he starts unravelling the mystery when he enlists the help of Lisbeth Salander, a girl full of tattoos and piercing with incredble skills at hacking.

Together, Mikael and Lisbeth, must uncover very dark secrets that no one could ever imagine, they explore dark memories and they confront the killer that has for so many years been masked and never actually stopped killing and raping.

Well, for starters, it's a very action-packed book. It is extremely dark and the entire landscape of Sweden adds to its certain gloom. There isn't a single thing left out of this book. There is romance, sex, rape, some kind of love, family drama, work drama and it's truly incredible to read about all those things woven into this amazing story, which, personally, left me speechless. I'll certainly be reading the second book. ...more

I try not to fall prey to hype. Normally, when a book has received as much exposure as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I will wait until the dust well and truly settles before even attempting to read it. However, this year it was part of the have-to-read agreement with my wife. So…

…was the hype justified? Well. Honestly? Yes. And No. It is a pretty good crime thriller, but it took me till page 347 (literally) to realize it.

Some Cons

The book starts off interminably dry anToo many possibilities.

I try not to fall prey to hype. Normally, when a book has received as much exposure as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I will wait until the dust well and truly settles before even attempting to read it. However, this year it was part of the have-to-read agreement with my wife. So…

…was the hype justified? Well. Honestly? Yes. And No. It is a pretty good crime thriller, but it took me till page 347 (literally) to realize it.

Some Cons

The book starts off interminably dry and plods along for what seems like ages, before the actual underlying story starts emerging. This is a problem, since I would have abandoned the novel had it not been part of a have-to-finish agreement. In hindsight, it would have been a mistake if I had abandoned it… and therein lies the rub, since I can’t help but wonder how many readers did just that.

The author drives his point home quite hard. I can see that he had a few things to say about crimes against women, and about economics in Sweden, but I did start feeling like I was being bludgeoned into submission by it all. I also wasn’t as enamored by the character of Lisbeth Salander as I had expected to be, given all the propaganda around the novel.

The Pros

The novel does have quite a few thing going for it. First of all I would like to mention that the translation to English was pretty well done, and didn’t come across quite as awkward as some tend to do. It’s an atmospheric story with enough twists and thrills to keep most thriller readers happy. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit, despite my misgivings and despite the cons listed above. The unique setting helped quite a bit, and the fact that the author actually juggles more than one story and literary genre here ups the bang-for-your-buck coefficient.

The Vanger family politics and entangled secret histories have a remarkably creepy quality about them, even if it does seem a bit convoluted.

I haven’t seen any of the film versions, but the story does have a cinematic sweep that I could imagine would lend itself well to the visual medium.

In Conclusion:

Analyse consequences. What do I do now?

In the end I’m a bit torn about which rating to give. I enjoyed it, but it does have some severe pacing issues. Also, there are so many red herrings and possible suspects that I did lose the thread on occasion (like another reviewer emphasizes: “Too many Vangers!”).

An Odd1"bludgeoned into submission" is how I felt recently reading a couple of award winners. Do prize committees have a checklist where judges tick off how"bludgeoned into submission" is how I felt recently reading a couple of award winners. Do prize committees have a checklist where judges tick off how many geography, history, economy, whatever lessons are taught? Maybe"until dust well and truly settles" is not even long enough?...more
Feb 26, 2014 12:08AM

Fred CliffordMark wrote: "Have seen the Swedish tv-movies and enjoyed them very much, did try to read the 1st book but gave up due to its dryness and slowness.

PerhMark wrote: "Have seen the Swedish tv-movies and enjoyed them very much, did try to read the 1st book but gave up due to its dryness and slowness.

Perhaps my fault will try to read them once more simply becaus..."

Mark wrote: "Have seen the Swedish tv-movies and enjoyed them very much, did try to read the 1st book but gave up due to its dryness and slowness.

Perhaps my fault will try to read them once more simply becaus..."

Yes, i almost gave up too. The first book slogs through all the Swedish financial jargon, and quite honestly, very boring. But after you get through the first 100 pages or so, you will enjoy this series. As a whole, the Millenium trilogy is one of if not my favorite books of this genre, of which I have read many!...more
Feb 26, 2014 08:05AM

Stieg Larsson (born as Karl Stig-Erland Larsson) was a Swedish journalist and writer who passed away in 2004.

As a journalist and editor of the magazine Expo, Larsson was active in documenting and exposing Swedish extreme right and racist organisations. When he died at the age of 50, Larsson left three unpublished thrillers and unfinished manuscripts for more. The first three books (The Girl WitStieg Larsson (born as Karl Stig-Erland Larsson) was a Swedish journalist and writer who passed away in 2004.

“What she had realized was that love was that moment when your heart was about to burst.”
—
2691 likes

“Friendship- my definition- is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don't have trust, the friendship will crumble.”
—
2373 likes